“Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere!”
With this line, Anton Ego, a respected and feared food critic and one of the main antagonists in the animated movie, Ratatouille (2007), declares his conversion from disdain for to being inspired by the approach to cooking of the fictional late Chef Auguste Gusteau – one of the best chefs in France, that “anyone can cook”.
Remy, a rat who cooks is the main character of the story and dreams of becoming a chef. Through a series of events, he lands up at Gusteau’s restaurant and teams up with Gusteau’s son, who has no stomach for cooking.
Together they cook up a storm and draws the attention of Ego, who soon arrives to sample the menu.
Remy prepares a dish that wins Ego over completely. He demands to compliment the chef in person and when he is introduced to Remy, walks away rocked to his core.
In his review he writes the famous line as a confession to only now understand what Gusteau meant by saying anyone can cook – while not everyone can be the great, but when given the opportunity, greatness can come from anywhere. ‘
The movie is brilliant and its messages worthwhile to consider by any – and everyone who sets out to achieve greatness at all cost.
The underlying drama is the perceived conflict between the views that greatness is the purview of the exceptional few or rather as something that emerges through engaging the many.
It is the cultural drama and societal struggles for access to resources – resources to become great that are provided to the few that fits the mould, or rather to the many who in their diversity challenge preconceived ideas of where the best potential lies.
The conflict is most pronounced when the drive to compete on a global scale combines with the reality of limited resources, as is the case for South Africa.
The situation demands of citizens, collectives and the state to take sides, or at least attempt to straddle the perceived divide between excellence coming from the many or the few. But always there is a decision to be made for either the one approach or the other to take precedence.
The problem that Ego discovered when presented with the countercultural reality of the little chef, Remy, was that the conventional belief that talent for greatness is limited only to some, was wrong, as was the assumption that only the selected few can maintain the highest standards, and also the narrative that success is achieved only by sticking to the established conventions of the past.
The argument that succeeded was Gusteau’s that when the many are engaged and included, their unending difference and uniqueness make for true and ever-growing greatness to emerge – the view that inspired a rat to find a way to greatness in a world of humans as enemies.
As a society builds citizens and collectives for greatness, what we need is friends of the many that offer diverse pathways to grow. No, not generic access without vision or drive, but rather leaders and teams known for being inclusive and embracing of the new, the unknown and the alternative.
The argument that succeeded was Gusteau’s that when the many are engaged and included, their unending difference and uniqueness make for true and ever-growing greatness to emerge – the view that inspired a rat to find a way to greatness in a world of humans as enemies.
As a society builds citizens and collectives for greatness, what we need is friends of the many that offer diverse pathways to grow. No, not generic access without vision or drive, but rather leaders and teams known for being inclusive and embracing of the new, the unknown and the alternative, of the rats.
* Rudi Buys, NetEd Group Chief Academic Officer and Executive Dean, DaVinci Business Institute.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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